Centre for Global Negotiations

"The Independent Commission on International Development Issues (ICIDI), chaired by former West German Chancellor and Nobel Laureate Willy Brandt, began its deliberations in 1977. The Brandt Commission, as it was popularly known, issued two reports and completed its work in 1984. As an independent panel, the Brandt Commission left it to the public to respond to its proposals, and for several years there was sustained global interest in the commission’s reports.

"From 1980-1987, Brandt Commission Research (BCR) provided news and background information to the media, governments, and the public on the Brandt Reports and international development issues. BCR associates held workshops and gave public presentations to UN conferences, international organizations, government agencies, corporations, schools, churches, and civic organizations across North America and Europe. BCR also designed a computer evaluation model to track international progress toward the Brandt Commission’s objectives, and provided technical support for the Brandt Commission at its meetings.

"The Brandt Report enjoyed widespread popularity in the early 1980s. The Brand Commission put forward general objectives on international development and invited the international community to generate specific targets to meet those objectives. Progress was slow. Over the next two decades, all of the development problems which the Brandt Commission identified grew worse, the gap between the developed and developing nations widened, and global poverty increased. Finally, in 2000, the Brandt Commission's development proposals were quantified in the UN Millennium Development Goals. Since that time, there has been a resurgence of public interest in the original proposals of the Brandt Commission.

"In light of the recent volatility in the international economy, and a growing public interest in international cooperation and development, several principals of the former Brandt Commission Research agency met in late 2001 under the name Brandt 21 Forum to review the global economic situation and the difficulties facing developing nations. The result of that review, titled The Brandt Equation: 21 st Century Blueprint for the New Global Economy, concluded that focused global dialogue on launching an international relief program and restructuring the international economy remains the world’s greatest priority. The closely related issues of hunger, poverty, population, women’s rights, aid, debt, armaments, security, energy, environment, technology, corporations, trade, money and finance are still not discussed in a common agenda at a central global forum. In addition, the leaders, institutions, public groups, and citizens pursuing reforms in these areas are not effectively coordinating their efforts and lack a unifying goal or plan.

"As a result of this review, the Centre for Global Negotiations was formed to carry on the original work of the Brandt Commission." [1]